War Tax Resistance in the Friends Journal in 1991

War tax resistance in the Friends Journal in
1991

War tax resistance had largely retreated into the back pages of the
Friends Journal by 1991.
Why this should be, I don’t know. Perhaps the winding down of the cold war
made the issue seem less crucial, or perhaps the momentum from the Vietnam War
era war tax resistance surge had finally sputtered to a halt, or maybe it was
just a feeling that the issue had been discussed to an impasse and readers
were fatigued and eager to move on to another topic, or it could be that the
“peace tax fund” campaign had convinced people that the dilemma of Quakers
paying for war would soon be a thing of the past.

The March issue briefly noted the publication
of a new NWTRCC practical war tax resistance pamphlet “on how
to prevent withholding of tax from wages.”

Frances S. Eliot penned an article for the
April issue that described a tax day vigil
the previous year in Ann Arbor, Michigan:

Holy Week at the IRS

During and since the Vietnam War, war tax dissidents in Ann Arbor, Michigan
have held vigils on April 15 from 8 p.m.
to midnight, with leaflets, posters, and banners, outside the main post
office, which stayed open to postmark last-minute income tax returns. The
weather was frequently dark, cold, and sleeting; but through the years,
public response became less hostile and more favorable. We usually got a
photo and brief paragraph in the local newspaper.

In 1990, a small circle of us decided to upgrade
our customary tax day witness. We were inspired by the
1982 success of the War Resisters League in
establishing the right to leaflet within New York City
IRS
offices; we were encouraged by growth of local peace groups and nonviolent
direct actions; and the fact that Easter fell on
April 15, tax day, presented a symbolic
opportunity we couldn’t resist.

The Lessons Learned:

Be persistent. If a course of action seems right and necessary, expect
aggravation and boredom along the way — but hang in there.

Document your communications and actions. An accurate record is
important.

Pay "courtesy calls" on your law enforcement agencies. Inform them of
your goals and plans. Know that part of their job may be to dissuade you
from actions they feel may cause trouble.

Check details of procedures, penalties, and possible legal expenses with
a sympathetic lawyer.

When dealing with a bureaucratic system, avoid procedural errors.
Respond to all details, whether they make sense or not. Don’t assume
there is continuity of record keeping by the bureaucracy. Send copies of
whatever you need to refer to: previous correspondence, ordinances,
regulations, recapitulation of phone conversations.

Our immediate goals were to provide taxpayers with information about the
federal budget and its military portion, and to offer alternatives, all at a
time and place that would permit genuine discussion of concerns. We planned
to distribute leaflets advocating the
U.S. Peace Tax
Fund Bill, which would establish conscientious objection for taxpayers.

We changed the location of our action from the post office, where we’d had
official permission and friendly cooperation, to the Ann Arbor
IRS
office, located in a privately-owned office complex. We had previously been
excluded from this building, grounds, and parking lot by the building
management. We decided to offer information and to talk with taxpayers during
business hours of Holy Week, and again on
April 16, Easter Monday, the actual tax
deadline.

Three tasks followed: First, we needed to pursue the application-for-permit
procedure required by the General Services Administration for activities
in/on federal property. Jurisdiction is fuzzy: is
GSA, IRS,
or the building management in charge? The ensuing communication with the
Detroit GSA
and IRS
offices unrolled like a script by Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka. On the
advice of a local ACLU
lawyer, I kept detailed records.

Second, we tried to assess the possible risks and penalties of our witness,
in case a permit were not granted. Again, who was in charge — Ann Arbor city
police? county sheriffs deputies? federal marshalls? Richard Cleaver,
AFSC Peace Education secretary, gave us an evening of training in nonviolent civil disobedience.

Third, we recruited enough people to keep the leafleting going, two or three
volunteers at a time, four hours a day, even if there were to be arrests. (In
such case our goals would expand from war-tax resistance to include First
Amendment rights.)

Monday morning, April 9, the day after Palm
Sunday, I dumped everything unnecessary from my purse and pockets, and
caught the bus out to the
IRS
office. I had barely spoken a few words and handed a Peace Tax Fund leaflet
to a woman waiting to see an
IRS
consultant, when an
IRS
officer came out of an inner office and said we absolutely could not be
permitted to distribute leaflets or initiate conversations with taxpayers in
the reception area.

I explained that I’d been trying since
February to get the necessary permit, had complied with all GSA
requirements, responded to GSA’s
objections, filed an amended application, and still had received no
definitive response. The officer, without comment, offered an attractive
solution, which he had cleared with the building management: So long as we
did not obstruct or harrass persons entering and leaving the
IRS
office, we could leaflet and converse with them in the corridor immediately
outside the office door.

We accepted the offer. During this busy tax season, a rack of the standard
IRS
forms had been moved into the corridor for the convenience of taxpayers who
only needed to pick up forms. The corridor area was thus functioning as a
temporary extension of the
IRS
office and was a logical and appropriate place for us to offer additional
information on where tax dollars go and what can be done about it. In
whatever way a deal had been made between
IRS and
the building management, it was a neat example of creative conflict
resolution. All of us were spared six days of possible arrests — which no one
wanted — but which we were prepared for.

Holy Week, Easter, and Tax Day came and went. We had lots of interesting
conversations, plus some mutually respectful arguments, with taxpayers. The
Ann Arbor News carried a picture of the
leafleting, and a good article on the Peace Tax Fund Bill.

Postscript: April 1991

That was then… this is now. We have taken a few breaths of post-Cold War
fresh air, only to be propelled into a hot war in the Middle East. Opinions
are increasingly polarized. However, on the assumption that the local
IRS and
its building management will continue their spirit of cooperation, we will
proceed with plans for a week-long 1991 witness
for taxes for peace.

Stay tuned!

Another note in that issue announced an “Alternative Revenue Service
organizing kit” put out jointly by NWTRCC, the War Resisters League, and the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign, and designed to facilitate “immediate action to oppose the war machine that survives on our tax money.”

[The] kit provides a 1990 EZ
Peace Income Tax Form, action ideas, an explanatory brochure, a camera-ready
flyer and ads, background papers, and a resource list. The
1990EZ Peace Income Tax Form is
a take-off on
IRS’s
1040EZ form. The
alternative form begins with a section in which the taxpayer figures the
amount of his or her taxes that will go toward military spending. It then
offers a choice of areas in which the money might be re-directed, such as
education and culture, international conflict resolution, human resources,
environment, or justice. The form provides a space in which to choose an
amount to withhold from the
IRS,
from $1 to the full amount of income taxes. The forms are to be filled out
and mailed to the
IRS,
with one’s income tax return, to Congressional representatives and senators,
to organizers of the campaign, and to friends and neighbors.

A book review in the July issue mentioned
Milton Mayer’s war tax resistance:

Milton Mayer refused to kill and refused to pay others to do what he would
not do himself. He recognized the futility of withholding his taxes from war
expenditures, but argued that “the inevitability of any evil is not the
point. The point is my subornation of it.” Knowing that the government would
ultimtely force him to pay war taxes, Mayer defended his integrity: “If a
robber ties me up and robs me, I have not become a robber.”

That issue also announced that a “Peace Taxpayers Newsletter” was being
published out of Nellysford, Virginia, covering “subjects of interest to war
tax resisters and others concerned with the tax money that supports military
efforts. A recent issue describes how some people in Virginia are redirecting
their federal taxes toward their local government to finance a much-needed
waste management system. The newsletter is available for no charge, although
the group asks for donations to help cover postage.”

The August issue announced a new
pamphlet — Peace and Taxes… God and
Country — written by Chel Avery for the War Tax Concerns Support
Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. “[It] has many helpful suggestions
for the structure, content, and process of a clearness meeting for individuals
considering war tax refusal. The financial, legal, and emotional ramifications
to the individual, the individual’s family, and meeting are discussed and
listed for easy reference.”

And that’s about it for 1991, except for some
minor asides or references to activities of the war tax resistance movement
scattered here and there.

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